July 2010

We have done a lot of fun things this summer. Firstly, we went out and bought a new car. Our faithful '01 Toyota Sienna had gone the way of the dodo. It was getting scary to drive it, and we were afraid we would end up spending a lot of money in the near future on repairs. One of our complaints with the minivan was a lack of storage space. We do a lot of camping, and on our last trip we just couldn't fit everything. Solution: buy a land yacht!


Welcome aboard the USS Queen Corinne! Captain Steve, at your service . . .

Yes, we bought a used 2010 Chevy Suburban. It can comfortably seat 8 (no, Corinne isn't pregnant). We can actually fit all three of the girls in their car seats on one row if we want. It has a massive trunk that easily accomodates all of our stuff. It has 4 wheel drive and a great towing capacity (there may be toys in our future).

Mary looks cute, doesn't she?

Mary demonstrates the cavernous trunk space - below we see the girls holding a track event in the trunk - Mary is doing the 4 foot dash while the girls look on.

The Callans with our new ride.

Our two cars. My Mazda 3 is dwarfed by the Suburban, which the girls have named Dumbo - due to the fact that it is grey and huge like an elephant.

These two pictures are just to show that Dumbo actually does fit in our garage. I had to remove a row of cabinets at the front of the garage to make it work, but now there's just as much room to get around the back of the car as we had with the minivan when the cabinets were there.

For her maiden voyage we took Dumbo on a family vacation to San Diego!

Shamu is still sooo cool!

The dolphins are fun too. They also have a pair of trained pilot whales that are part of this show - the only performing pilot whales in the world.

These guys are part of Cirque de la Mer, an amazing show involving Chinese acrobatics and other big Las Vegas show style acts.

Mary wasn't too impressed with Seaworld, or anywhere else we went - I imagine her train of thought was something like, "well, here I am in the stroller all day again . . ."

The girls pop up through the ice with a seal, hoping not to be eaten by polar bears.

During my travels I discovered a den of viscious polar bears and barely escaped with my life.

This walrus and her mate were hilarious. They were the most active animals I've ever seen on display - wrestling each other, blowing against the glass, and staring at the tourists.

This was one of two Beluga Whales they have at Seaworld. They were my favorites - they were like huge white ghosts swimming in and out of view. That, and they have these strange rolls of fat running along their bellies lengthwise that we referred to as their love handles.

The two girls and I look at startfish - you could pick them up and play with them as long as you kept them under water.

Here we are waiting for the Shamu show to start. We were in the splash zone, and Grace really wanted Shamu to splash her. He did splash us, but only Rebecca and I got wet!

We toured the aircraft carrier USS Midway.

Given the choice, I might have chosen this airplane as our new family vehicle . . .

Even ace pilots have to eject now and then . . .

One of the many carrier based aircraft we saw on the tour.

The girls inside a search and rescue helicopter

Grace and I walking along Mission Beach.

The girls had fun building a sand castle.

Mary loved the sand so much that she actually ate quite a bit of it!

Fun in the sun! Actually, it was overcast and about 75 degrees, but we still had fun.

We visited the San Diego Temple, all excited to see one of the most beautiful temples of the Church, and it was covered with scaffolding! Even temples need maintenance I guess . . .

Here's Mary in her usual circumstances, but this time we're at the San Diego Zoo! Poor kid - things didn't really change for her much throughout the trip.

The girls liked this lion statue - they really like lions because of Aslan from "The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe."

Mary finally got to touch something, and you can see that it made her happy.

Gracie thought the goats were neat too.

Becca and this orangutan made a real connection that afternoon.

The natives were restless!

Here we see the brilliant coloration of the Callan girls - femenina cuteygirlius.

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So that was our trip. There are more pictures from a previous camping trip, but I have to gather them in from the other families who went with us. We forgot our camera, as usual. But look for future updates. And until then, know that we love you and can't wait to see you again!